Online Premiere - The Fox and the Chickadee

I've finally posted my first short film "The Fox and the Chickadee" online, and wanted to share it with everyone here. This board has been a valuable resource for the over the years, and is still the place I send anyone looking to learn more about making stop-motion.

I worked with a great art director Winston Hacking who built all of the sets, and he came up with a solution for the snow made of salt and petroleum jelly that looked nice and animated well too. I think we used this mostly for close up snow, and anything that was out of focus we used felt or cotton.

Simon Tytherleigh said:

Really nice, and a great fable. Liked the wings and the fur, both of which must have been quite challenging. And the great sense of depth in the wood.

How did you do the snow? It looks very realistic, nicely rutted, but also great on the branches etc.

That's really interesting. I have just done a snow scene, using washing powder (non-bio!), which was nice and granular, but of course it wouldn't stay still if touched by mistake. I like the petroleum jelly idea for some control.

BTW I also tried that snow stuff that you add water to fluff it up - total disaster! It shrank and hardened over time, and was a bit like trying to smear rice pudding over the set. Ugh!

Looking at your BTS video, it looks like Winston used hot glue to make the icicles. Neat!

I should also have said - very nice flowing animation, and lovely cut-out animation for the middle section.

This is a super amazing movie, full of great visuals. I follow along with the work that's been assisted by the NFB in Canada, and I've asked other filmmakers about how they were able to help. Can you explain what that relationship is like? Is it a financial help, or is it mentoring/feedback?

I look at the NFB Roku channel a lot, there's just so much great work in the archives of the NFB, I'm a big fan of it. I recommend it to any animation filmmaker. 'The Cat Came back' and 'the Big Snit' are my favorites on the channel.

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